Joseph Boshoven Mr. Sherman Honors English, C3 16 March 2023 Grief and Coping Within The Odyssey and Today’s Society Grief is a complex emotion expressed mentally and physically. There are many factors that contribute to the experience of grief, such as: availability of support, your relationship with the person who died, personality, and your mental health. Everyone has a different experience with grief, and everyone will experience loss in their lifetime. Just as Odysseus, the protagonist in Homer’s epic poem, The Odyssey , did in his lifetime. This story takes place in Greece, on the Mediterranean Sea, and the small islands inside of it such as Ithaca, Odysseus’s homeland. Odysseus goes on a 20 year journey, ten years of war, …show more content…
There are unlimited ways to express healthy emotion. As everyone experiences this, loss is understood as a natural part of life. However, we can still be overcome by shock and confusion, leading to prolonged periods of sadness or depression. The sadness typically diminishes in intensity as time passes, but grieving is an important process in order to overcome these feelings and continue to embrace the time you had with your loved one.” (Nordal PhD, Katherine APA). Grief happens normally as a part of life, and each person has their own reaction to it, but the emotions of sadness, and depression are common between them. These emotions can take different amounts of time to diminish, but in time they will. Grief emotions that come from a loss, are not only limited to sadness and depression, but actually include a wide range of affect, grieving individuals may experience a large number of emotions, which are all normal and happen naturally and at different periods of time while grieving. These emotions all, in most cases, lead to acceptance in which case they move on.(APA). In today's world, many emotions are expressed by mourning people. However, in The Odyssey , Odysseus mainly expresses a small number of emotions related to sadness and depression. While a large range of emotions is understood and is considered normal for someone …show more content…
The use of rituals, such as a burial or ceremony, can help promote grief. In his travels, the grief that Odysseus displayed, was openly welcomed and supported by the people he came across in his travels. It was accepted as normal. While we know much more today about grief and loss then back then, we are still working to accept and support those who are grieving. In my opinion society today would benefit from approaching grief openly and naturally, similar to the people in the time of The